STATE AS EMPLOYER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25503, 5 April 1944, Page 6

STATE AS EMPLOYER

COMMITMENT UNDER HOLIDAYS BILL NO DEFINITE INDICATION (F.0.P.R.) WELLINGTON, Apl. 4. No definite indication whether the Crown is bound by the Annual Holidays Bill was given in the House of Representatives to-day when the measure was returned from the Legislative Council. The question of the Crown s commitment was raised by Opposition speakers during the second reading debate on March 25. When replying to inquiries at that time the Prtme Minister, Mr P. Fraser, said it' was a fundamental principle that the Government should not impose on the private employer what it was not willing to shoulder itself. He could not say whether it was possible to insert a clause binding the Crown, but he undertook to have the matter looked Into between then and the time the Bill was in the Upper House. Speaking before the Prime Minister In the same debate, the Minister of Supply Mr D. G. Sullivan, said the Crown Law Office had advised that it was not possible to bind the Crown in the Bill. When the Bill was returned from the Legislative Council to-day the onlyamendments made were those providing for Ihe taking of the two weeks’ holiday in two periods and for the payment of cash for holidays in respect of workers with under one year’s employment. There was no reference in the Bill to the position of the Crown, nor did any member of the House raise the question, which had been so extensively debated previously.